Season 10
2011 - 2012
Bad Dates
by Theresa Rebeck
September 28 - October 16, 2011
Maine Premiere
A single mom juggles her crazy life which includes raising her teenage daughter, managing a New York restaurant (run by the Romanian mob) and “getting back in to dating”. Bad Dates is a guilty pleasure, offering hilarious reflections on relationships, jobs, fashion, and dating through genuinely captivating monologues.
-
Haley – Dana Cuomo
Set Design – Stephen Underwood
Costumes/Production Stage Manager – Justin Cote
Lighting Design – Jamie Grant
Set Decoration/Scenic Artist – Janet Montgomery
Assistant Tech Director/Photographer – Craig Robinson
Production Assistant – Meredith Lamothe
Assistant Stage Manager – Heidi TherrienDirected by Brian P. Allen^
* Member Actors' Equity Association
^ Member SDC, Society of Directors & Choreographers -
'BAD DATES' OFFERS EVER-HOPEFUL, CHARMING HEROINE
Portland Press Herald by Steve Feeney, 10/2/2011Haley Walker, the only onstage character in "Bad Dates," is a bit of a shoe freak. She's always searching her impressive and constantly growing collection for that pair that she can be sure is genuinely "cute."
Perhaps that's the best word to describe this 10th-season opener from Portland's Good Theater as well. "Sweet" and "funny" would also apply.
Playwright Theresa Rebeck's insights are modest and perhaps more likely to garner chuckles of recognition from female members of the audience than from the males. Men, too, though, will probably enjoy the show, not the least because the star makes for an attractive protagonist.
Director Brian P. Allen has cast accomplished New York and Hollywood actress Dana Cuomo to take on the role of Haley, who is onstage for all of the five-scene, 90-minute play. Her 40-ish Haley recounts directly to the audience -- often while trying on and changing clothes and shoes -- her plans for and the ultimate results of her attempts to re-enter the dating scene after getting over a bad marriage, raising a young daughter and building a career as a restaurant manager.
Cuomo employs a credible Texas accent, which sometimes swerves toward a down-home, tell-it-like-it-is inflection and other times shows her character's softer side. She does a good job of communicating that her Haley is letting the audience in on her personal secrets.
The bedroom set by Stephen Underwood and costume design by Justin Cote nicely reinforce the intimate feeling of the play.
Perhaps it was more a result of the accent but, at Saturday's performance, Cuomo's delivery in a few spots did seem ever so slightly rushed. There are some very funny lines that deserve a moment to breathe. On the other hand, Haley is in a sort of panic as her romantic hopes seem to be continually dashed. So, a bit of chattering also fits the role.
The legal problems that Haley encounters late in the play help resolve her dating issues but also stretch her claim to everywoman status a tad. But this is not a play to think about too much.
As in most good dates, "Bad Dates" is most successful when you just relax, sit back and let its likable character and nice little message happen.
THERE’S NOTHING LIKE A GOOD ‘BAD DATES’
The Forecaster by Scott Andrews, 10/2/2011Good Theater’s “Bad Dates” is really, really good. That’s the executive summary of the opening production of this professional company’s 2011-2012 season. Theresa Rebeck’s script is thoughtful and funny, and actress Dana Cuomo infuses its Maine premiere with warmth and wit.
Bad experiences make for good playwriting and humorous storytelling. That’s the basic premise for “Bad Dates,” a one-woman play by Theresa Rebeck that opened last weekend and runs through Oct. 16 at Portland’s Good Theater.
Director Brian P. Allen has engaged New York actress Dana Cuomo to play the part of the attractive, middle-aged divorced mom who has decided to get back into the dating game, and recounts some of her misadventures.
Her first attempt involves an older man whose principal talking points are his many illnesses, cholesterol and colonoscopies. Her second date, set up by her well-meaning mom, is with an ill-tempered gay man. Her third date never shows up. A fourth lands her in a police station.
Although I’m not a big fan of one-man or one-woman shows, this one is exceptionally good. Cuomo is totally engaging, and totally convincing. Her hour and a half, spent mostly sitting in her bedroom recounting her experiences, is both funny and enlightening.
My companion, a lady who said that she’s been through a few bad dates herself, alternately winced and laughed.
Ancesteral Voices
by A.R. Gurney
October 19 - October 23, 2011
The short play is staged as a concert work, with five performers. The five are playing members - grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, son -of a rich WASP family in Buffalo, NY between 1935 and 1942, with a brief coda from the 1960s... This is a magical play... a nuanced reminiscence full of time and change and loss and suffering…
-
Eddie – Brian P. Allen^
Jane – Lee K. Paige
Harvey – Bob McCormack
Grandmother – Jocelyn Pollard
Grandfather – Stephen Underwood
Directed by Brian P. Allen^
Lighting – Jamie Grant
Stage Manager – Justin Cote* Member Actors' Equity Association
^ Member SDC, Society of Directors & Choreographers -
'ANCESTRAL VOICES’ A WARM, WITTY SNAPSHOT OF AMERICANA
'The Maine Sunday Telegram, By April Boyle, 10/23/11It seems like just yesterday when the Good Theater opened its doors with a production of Brandon Thomas' "Charley's Aunt." In actuality, the theater is now in the midst of performing the second production of its 10th season, A.R. Gurney's "Ancestral Voices." And, to bring the apropos play to the stage, the Good Theater is revisiting its own past.
"Ancestral Voices" reunites Bob McCormack, Lee K. Paige and Stephen Underwood, three actors from Good Theater's inaugural 2002 production. The play also gives audiences the rare opportunity to see both of the theater's founders, Underwood and Brian P. Allen, performing together.
A mismatched, five-piece set of chairs, along with five music stands and two rugs, comprise the stripped-down set of "Ancestral Voices," Fittingly, two of the chairs also made their Good Theater debut in "Charley's Aunt."
Each chair has been carefully chosen to accentuate the unique personalities of the characters -- a striped, upholstered chair for the spirited grandmother; an aristocratic chair for the proper father; a velvet chair for the pampered mother; a luxurious leather chair for the affluent grandfather; and a high-back, wooden chair for the lovable Eddie.
The 90-minute, one-act play is set in Buffalo, New York between 1938-1942, with a brief coda in 1960. It's staged as a concert work, with the five performers reading from scripts, discreetly placed on the music stands in front of them. In many ways, the style resembles the old-time radio broadcasts of the play's era, but with an added bonus that radio couldn't offer listeners: priceless facial expressions and character-transforming body language.
The most dramatic character transformation is Eddie, who is both the narrator and focal character. At the opening and end of the story, Eddie is a man in his thirties. Throughout the rest of the production, though, he's a little boy, age eight to 11.
Allen won over the audience Friday with his adorable portrayal. He unleashed his inner child with boyish glee, glowing with childlike wonder and inquisitiveness. It was easy to forget that Allen is a man in his early fifties as he whined, fidgeted in his chair and scrunched up his face with expressions that captured every nuance of a child's personality.
Underwood dug into his two-part role as Eddie's grandfather and "Uncle" Roger, his grandfather's home-wrecking, former friend.
He donned glasses Friday to mark the shift in characters, but props really weren't necessary. Underwood's change in demeanor and facial expressions gave the illusion that two very different men took turns occupying the same chair.
Paige and McCormack added to the overall humor of the production as Eddie's well-intentioned but socially biased parents, Jane and Harvey.
Veteran actress Jocelyn Lavin Pollard deftly rounded out the cast as Eddie's grandmother, a woman who scandalously divorced her husband of many years to marry Roger.
"Ancestral Voices" is a sweet, funny snapshot of Americana, endearingly told through the eyes of a child. Good Theater has embraced the wit and warmth of A.R. Gurney's play, delivering a production heartwarming from start to finish.
August: Osage County
by Tracy Letts
November 2 - November 20, 2011
A vanished father. A pill-popping mother. Three sisters harboring shady little secrets. When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites after Dad disappears, their Oklahoman family homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets. A major new play that unflinchingly - and uproariously - exposes the dark side of the Midwestern American family.
-
Violet - Lisa Stathoplos
Beverly - Chris Horton
Barbara - Kathleen Kimball
Bill - Mark Rubin
Jean - Allison McCall
Mattie Fae - Cynthia Barnett*
Charlie - Charles Michael Howard*
Little Charles - Brent Askari
Ivy - Amy Roche
Karen - Janice Gardner
Steve - Paul Drinan
Sheriff Deon - David Branch
Johnna - Kate DavisDirector - Brian P. Allen^
Set Design - Stephen Underwood
Lighting Design - Jamie Grant
Costume Design - Justin Cote
Stage Manager - Joshua Hurd
Scenic Artist - Janet Montgomery
Assistant Tech Director/Photographer - Craig Robinson* Member Actors' Equity Association
^ Member SDC, Society of Directors & Choreographers -
EMOTIONS RUN HOT IN GOOD THEATER’S ‘AUGUST’
Portland Press Herald, By April Boyle, 11/5/2011High-octane drama is unfolding on the Good Theater's stage with an up-close-and-personal look into the better-than-reality television lives of the Weston family. The theater's most popular production to date, "August: Osage County," is back for a 15-performance run. And emotions are running at full throttle this time around.
Oklahoma was everything but OK Thursday night as the Weston family secrets bubbled to the surface in the small town of Pawhuska. Tempers, emotions, wit and plates, among other things, were flying as the Westons gathered, following the mysterious disappearance of the family's patriarch, Beverly (Chris Horton).
The Good Theater has reunited all but one of the 13 cast members from last year's production -- Allison McCall takes on the role of Jean Fordham, previously played by Emma Banks -- to once again bring Tracy Letts' three-act epic to life.
Audiences couldn't ask for a more riveting interpretation. It's like seeing a production at the end of its
run, but better. Last year's 20-performance run was one heck of a dress rehearsal that's afforded the cast the opportunity to fine-tune the characterizations, amp up the witty dialogue and realistically capture an emotionally charged slice of life.
Lisa Stathoplos was completely immersed in her role as the pill-popping matriarch, Violet, on Thursday, blurring the lines between reality and fiction. Her slurred speech, derailed train of thought, unsteady gait and antagonistic manner were so believable that it wouldn't have come as a surprise if a rehab team had shown up at the end of the performance to admit the actress into a three-step program.
She remained in character throughout the three-hour-plus play, succeeding in capturing both the raw emotion and humor of the role, without caricature.
Her performance was fueled by Kathleen Kimball's emotionally taut portrayal of Barbara Fordham, Beverly and Violet's oldest daughter. The character unraveled before the audience's eyes, overwhelmed by the reality of her soap-opera-like life. The explosive last scene between mother and daughter is definitely something to see.
The Weston clan is a large family that also includes Beverly and Violet's daughters, Ivy (Amy Roche) and Karen (Janice Gardner); Violet's sister, Mattie Fae Aiken (Cynthia Barnett); Mattie Fae's husband, Charlie (Charles Michael Howard), and son, Little Charles (Brent Askari); Barbara's husband, Bill (Mark Rubin); and Karen's fiance, Steve Heidebrecht (Paul Drinan). Non-family members Johnna Monevata (Katherine Davis), the Westons' housekeeper, and Deon Gilbeau (David Branch), the town sheriff, round out the amazing cast.
It would be easy to go on and on about each cast member. All artfully bring out all the wonderful quirks and unstable aspects of their characters. And the actor dynamics are superb.
"August: Osage County" has it all: passion, intrigue, incest, adultery, drugs, alcohol and abuse, to name just a few story elements. It's gripping drama, with a healthy dose of wit and humor and a multi-layered plot that unveils something new with each viewing. It's a production worth seeing again and again.
‘AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY’ IS POWERFUL DRAMA
The Forecaster by Scott Andrews, 11/7/2011One of the most powerful stage dramas in recent years was Tracy Letts’ “August: Osage County,” which opened on Broadway in 2007 and ran a year and a half – a remarkable performance for a straight play. When Good Theater presented its Maine premiere last fall, it broke all of the company’s attendance records, and many wannabe attendees had to be turned away.
So it’s no surprise that artistic director Brian P. Allen decided to bring it back for the 2011-2012 season. And equally remarkably, he’s got 12 of the 13 actors he had last year. “August: Osage County” runs through Nov. 20 at the top of Munjoy Hill in Portland.
One of the most powerful American plays in recent decades is Tracy Letts’ “August: Osage County,” a darkly comedic drama about the disintegration, implosion and self-destruction of three generations of a Midwestern family.
The playwright is a member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Company, which first produced the script in 2006. When it transferred to Broadway in 2007, “August: Osage County” won both the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. (It also won four other Tonys.) Good Theater produced the Maine premiere last fall, and it was a sensational success, topping all attendance records in the company’s history.
It’s back for Good Theater’s 2011-2012 season, and its just a powerful as it was last year.
“August: Osage County” is a large, sprawling play with a cast of 13 and a huge set. The original production recreated a three-story house; Good Theater’s set, designed by Steve Underwood, spills out of its available space in all dimensions. Although the formal time span covers only a few weeks, the play extensively revisits long-past episodes in the lives of the characters, giving the impression that decades roll by.
Director Brian P. Allen has assembled a top-notch professional cast. The action mostly revolves around the confrontation of two bitterly opposed characters, an aging woman and her middle-age daughter. The drama begins when patriarch of the family – who describes himself as a “world-class alcoholic” – goes missing and the family gathers at the homestead in rural Oklahoma. The first act concludes with the sheriff announcing that his body has been found at the bottom of a local reservoir, an apparent suicide.
The many conflicts that were set up in the first act reach a climax in the second, and an uneasy resolution is reached in the third.
Both of the two principal women characters get bravura performances. Lisa Stathoplos is sensational as the 65-year-old matriarch of the family, a melancholy, strong-willed woman who is addicted to prescription drugs and possesses a razor-edged tongue. She’s more than matched by Kathleen Kimball as the conflicted daughter who is vainly attempting to keep her own family together – her professor husband is having an affair with one of his college students – while she simultaneously tries to control her mother’s kith and kin.
The language is at times very crude and the entire experience iss. It has much the character of a multi-episode soap opera, as hidden secrets are revealed at regular intervals during the play’s three-hour-plus running time. Several secondary plots are interwoven throughout. Incest and adultery are involved, and each of the 13 characters has to work through his or her own set of demons. Most of them are unsuccessful.
There’s a lot of humor involved, and Letts’ wry observations on many subjects add much to the theatrical experience.
I’ve been attending Good Theater since its inception, and “August: Osage County” is definitely the most powerful drama the company has mounted. I was profoundly impressed by the 2010 production, and the current one is equally good – perhaps even improved in some of the finer points of performance.
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
The Journal Tribune by Greg Morrell, 11/8/2011A Pulitzer Prize and five Tony awards greeted Tracy Lett’s “August: Osage County” when it premiered on Broadway in 2007. What greets audiences at Portland’s GOOD THEATER is a superb production of this contemporary masterwork, not in the expanse of a Broadway theater but within the intimate confines of their petite playhouse of 100 seats on Portland’s Munjoy Hill.
It’s hot in August in Oklahoma’s Osage County and this family drama really turns up the heat.
The action is intense, the content disturbing and provocative, the writing brilliant, and the protean efforts of the 13 member cast keeps you on the edge of your seat for the full three acts. The two ten minute intermissions give you a chance to breathe deeply as this is challenging material that cuts to the bone.
As the drama unfolds, we feel more like uninvited guests at this rancorous family gathering rather than theater goers watching from the comfort of our seats. I loved this play--a searing tale of disfunction and dissolution that reminded me of Albee’s “Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Instead of a cast of four academics in a small college town out for a long bender, we are regaled with a deeply probing family drama of three sisters that have convened with their spouses to the grand ramshackle country house of their parents due to the strange disappearance of their alcohol soaked poet/retired professor father.
What follows is a brutal exposure of family secrets that careen like a train wreck. No nerve is spared as this family falls into collective meltdown. F-bombs fly in a firestorm of insult and injury.
The overall cast is excellent and represent a panoply of rich character types from the bold and brash to the pathologically internalized to those with acerbic wit and ripping sarcastic venom.
At the center of all is the pill popping matriarch, Violet Weston, magnificently played by Lisa Stathoplos. Vacillating between drug induced stupor and crisp intellectual insight, the chain smoking Violet is riveting.
As Violet staggers about, precariously teetering on the edge of balance, she mesmerizes with her cackling laugh, her acid tonged humor and her unabashed proclamations and condemnations that deliciously pepper the shocking proceedings. Despite her frail exterior she displays an inner strength that belies her age and ill health.
This is powerful drama invested with outrageous humor that creates a masterful theatrical feast. Smashing plates, rolling pin head banging, and brilliantly choreographed ensemble bickering--as when the entire cast is chaotically carping, complaining and vociferating in a full stage muster--are hallmarks of this cleverly directed production.
This is superb theater craft that the adventurous theater goer does not want to miss.
Broadway at Good Theater
Annual Fundraiser Event
December 1 - 4, 2011
Our annual concerts featuring a major Broadway star, the fabulous Marva Pittman, a gospel singer from North Carolina in her 6th year at Good Theater, plus a dozen of your favorite local performers. With songs from Broadway and music of the holiday season, you and your family will want to experience this amazing event.
-
Direction – Brian P. Allen
Musical Direction – Victoria StubbsFeaturing:
Kevin Earley
Joe Bearor
Grace Bradford
Marc Brann
Kelly Caufield
Todd Daley
Marie Dittmar
Deirdre Fulton
David Goulet
Meredith Lamothe
Lynne McGhee
Jen Means
Erik Moody
Taylor Palmer
Marva Pittman
Amy Roche
Benjamin Row
Stephen Underwood
Lighting – Jamie Grant
Set Design & Stage Manager – Justin Cote -
GOOD FOLKS SHAKE BROADWAY’S BOUNTIFUL TREE
Portland Press Herald by Steve Feeney, 12/3/2011In honor of the 10th anniversary of Good Theater, director, master of ceremonies and mime Brian P. Allen has assembled another edition of his annual tribute to Broadway. It features lots of classic and newer
Presented with few frills but tons of enthusiasm, the show includes some choice holiday and pop songs as well. As reviewed on opening night, it makes for an especially entertaining seasonal treat.
In true get-'em-on-and-get-'em-off style, 18 singers worked quickly, though not hurriedly, through more than 30 tunes. Performing solo and in various combinations on a stage decorated for Christmas, the performers were ably backed by a three piece-band directed by pianist Victoria Stubbs.
The suave Kevin Earley got top billing and didn't disappoint. He added his casual grace to his take on "Fly Me to the Moon" and really sold it, as they say, to the back row with his rendition of "I Thought I Could Live" from "Death Takes a Holiday,"the Broadway show in which he starred.
The program's mix of soft and sweet with more brassy tunes succeeded as the performers moved through a variety of styles and genres.
Todd Daley, Benjamin Row, Erik Moody and Joe Bearor were early favorites as they combined for a spirited take on "There is Nothing Like a Dame" from "South Pacific." The foursome later were joined by Stephen Underwood for the funny "Fatherhood Blues."
Marva Pittman and Kelly Caufield combined on Carole King's "You've Got a Friend" to good effect, and Jen Means, Lynne McGhee and Marie Dittmer worked beautiful harmonies into "A Loud and Funny Song." Pittman also took the lead for a very soulful ensemble rendition of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind."
Amy Roche showed a real talent for musical comedy on "My Simple Christmas Wish" and "Books," the latter a delightful seated duet with Underwood. David Goulet added pristine solo renditions of tunes including "The Christmas Song," made famous by Mel Torme.
Meredith Lamothe, Deirdre Fulton, Taylor Palmer, Grace Bradford and Marc Brann rounded out the cast. Surrounded by the entire company, Earley returned to close the show with "O Holy Night."
It's a full-on show with a short run. Everyone who likes a well-done musical review should run to see it.
Next Fall
by Geoffrey Nauffts
January 25 – February 19, 2012
Maine Premiere
Good Theater presents the Maine premiere of this recent Tony Award nominee for Best Play. NEXT FALL takes a witty and provocative look at faith, commitment and unconditional love and goes beyond a typical love story. This timely and compelling new American play forces us all to examine what it means to “believe,” and what it might cost us not to.
-
Adam – Rob Cameron*
Luke – Joe Bearor
Holly – Abbie Killeen*
Butch – Tony Reilly
Arlene – Moira Driscoll
Brandon – Matt DelamaterDirected by Brian P. Allen^
Set Design/Assistant Tech Director – Craig Robinson
Costumes/Production Stage Manager – Justin Cote
Lighting - Iain Odlin
Dramaturge/Assistant Director – Meredith Lamothe
Tech Director – Stephen Underwood
Scenic Artist – Janet Montgomery* Member Actors' Equity Association
^ Member SDC, Society of Directors & Choreographers -
“NEXT FALL” AN EXPERIENCE NOT TO BE MISSED
Portland Daily Sun by Michael J. Tobin, 2/2/2012Every so often, if your lucky, you get to experience the perfect play. Good Theater, of Portland, opened the new year with the dramedy, Next Fall, by Geoffrey Nauffts and brought to the stage one of the best plays I have seen in a very long time. Start to finish, this is an experience not to be missed.
This play is about two men in a committed relationship with a twist: Luke is devoutly religious and Adam is an atheist. The play revolves around their five-year relationship and how they make it work despite their differences. However, when an accident changes everything, Adam must look within himself and those around him for support and answers. Although Next Fall involves two men, it's theme is universal and paints a beautiful and funny portrait of modern romance, asking hard questions about commitment, love, and faith that anyone can relate to.
Directed by Brian P. Allen, Next Fall is full of sharp humor and unflinching honesty with a Broadway caliber cast of six. Allen moves the play effortlessly from present day to flashbacks, each scene packed full of emotional and physical moments that are as comfortable as if you were watching your favorite long-running sitcom. Regardless if you're straight, gay or questioning, Allen lets the audience take their own journey with unobtrusive and skillful direction.
Rob Cameron (Adam), is a solid acting foundation for the cast to build and play upon. Cameron's performance is flawless and worth the price of admission. Rather he's being the very funny hypochondriacal, fatalistic or the emotional loving partner, Cameron "is" Adam and takes the audience on a painfully beautiful journey of life and love. Joe Bearor (Luke) is Cameron's equal in every way and gives a strong performance that will rip you apart emotionally as he struggles with the challenges of faith and relationships. For this play to work, you must believe that despite their essential dissimilarities, Adam and Luke are meant to be together. The chemistry between Cameron and Bearor is without question and incredibly natural.
And the same is true of everyone else: Tony Reilly (Butch) and Moira Driscoll (Arlene) are Luke’s divorced parents. Reilly's born-again fundamentalist is disturbingly real.
Reilly's performance is layered heavily on the anti-gay, but his final moments break barriers with emotional force. Driscoll's performance as the reformed wild woman of Southern-fried eccentricities, makes her one of the funniest actresses in Maine. Abigail Killeen (Holly) plays Adam’s longtime confidante with humor and a heart warming glue that tries to keep everyone together. Matt Delamater (Brandon) plays an old friend of Luke’s who won’t accept his friend’s relationship with Adam. Delamater's character is perhaps the hardest one to act in the show, due to its underlying secrets. In act two, Delamater's acting cork finally gets unplugged as he reveals a very disturbing yet very moving revelation.
Set design by Craig Robinson is perfect. Robinson creates a roomy playground of suggested locations for the actors to play on, making transitions between scenes smooth and quick. Iain Odlin (Lighting Designer) and Stephen Underwood (Sound Designer) compliment Allen's direction and vision with perfect color, focus and music. Justin Cote (Costume Designer) dresses everyone appropriately, matching styles, colors and accessories to their characters.
At the show's end, patron tears flowed like the big and uneasy questions this play asks. Don’t expect them to go away when the play is over. This is one journey that will stay with you long after you leave the theater.
GOOD THEATER WRESTLES WITH LOVE AND SIN
The Portland Phoenix, by Megan Grumbling, 2/1/2012There's only one major problem in the love between Adam (Rob Cameron), a sarcastic would-be teacher working in retail, and Luke (Joe Bearor), an aspiring young actor. It's not that Luke is a good decade Adam's junior (that's actually pretty hot) or that Adam is a raging hypochondriac. The problem, in Geoffrey Nauffts's comedic drama Next Fall, directed by Brian P. Allen at the Good Theater, is that Luke considers their love a sin.
Don't get Luke wrong. "That was some amazing sinning we just did," he grins to casually atheistic Adam on a morning soon after they've met downtown in New York City. But it's no joke: Luke is an unwaveringly devout Christian, one who accepts the traditional dictum against his own sexuality. As he and Adam deepen their commitment over five years, Luke's faith creates ever more disharmony between them — Adam is hurt by Luke's prayers after sex; Luke by Adam's refusal to be saved. But what really blows the
conflict open is a terrible car accident that lands Luke comatose and brain-damaged in the hospital. Next Fall jumps us back and forth between scenes before the accident, chronicling the men's relationship, and after, when Luke's parents, friends, and lover wait, commune, and sometimes do philosophical battle in a hospital waiting room.
Luke and Adam's timeline stretches across the stage visually in soft taupe tones: An apartment, a waiting room, and a church pew. On the apartment end, we encounter the couple and their self-described "fag hag" friend Holly (Abigail Killeen), who owns a tchotchke shop; the waiting room brings Holly and Adam together with Luke's divorced Southern parents Arlene (Moira Driscoll), who is kind, frank, and funny but has been an addict; and brash man's man Butch (Tony Reilly), whose name sort of says it all. Together, whether recalling Luke's starring turn in Our Town or smoldering over evolution, they create a richly textured gestalt of the complicated love that the unconscious man has inspired.
In Bearor's hands, that man is sweetly, mischievously, at times angelically endearing, and brings a beautiful and witty warmth to his and Adam's rapport — the two of them wrestling/cuddling on the couch is a delight of affection. But Bearor is also adept at turning on Luke's earnest, immovable surety about his faith, which so confounds and infuriates his lover, and making that belief seem less a contradiction than a complexity in character. As his older, wryer, less graceful partner, Cameron is both funny and affecting as he shows the wariness and the deep desire for intimacy with which Adam is slowly drawn out and into love.
Adam is of a different cohort than Luke in both age and faith, and Cameron's irreverent rapport with Killeen's vibrant, bantering Holly poses a revealing contrast to his romantic relationship. Further contrasts come in the terse, mysterious, Bible-carrying character of Brandon (Matt Delamater, evocative in a difficult, elusive role), who turns up at the hospital, and who has had an undisclosed species of relationship with Luke. And as Luke's parents, Driscoll and Reilly do beautiful and moving work balancing what they do and do not understand about their son, positioning their own beliefs and grief against those of Luke's friends; they make poignant characters out of often comic, easily caricatured types.
While the questions facing all of these characters are deep and difficult, Nauffts's script keeps things accessible, and even comedic, as much as possible — viewers of Seinfeld or other sitcoms will recognize the tropes, jokes, and moments of clarity. It makes for a show that feels comfortably familiar, with much of its agony tenderly diffused into comedy, even its quandaries present nothing like an easy answer.
“NEXT FALL” DELIVERS AN EMOTIONAL PUNCH
The Portland Press Herald, by April Boyle, 1/29/2012Most people would agree that relationships are challenging, no matter who you are, or what kind of relationship you are trying to forge. When it comes to matters of the heart, things get even trickier. That said, what would happen if two men -- one a devout Christian, and the other an unwavering non-believer -- tried to make a go of it?
In "Next Fall," playwright Geoffrey Nauffts takes the audience on an emotional journey that explores the impact religion can have on a relationship, and what that could mean for a gay couple.
The audience is thrust into the storyline mid-stream, unsure who the characters are, and exactly why they are gathered in the waiting room of a Jewish hospital. Through a series of flashbacks that leap forward and backward in time, the missing pieces begin falling into place, and Luke (Joe Bearor) and Adam's (Rob Cameron) complex story slowly unfolds.
The pair first met five years prior at a party thrown by Adam's friend Holly (Abigail Killeen). It's a party for Overeaters Anonymous, Holly's most recent interest, despite the fact she is not overweight.
Luke, who is working as a waiter at the party, comes to Adam's aid when Adam, an incurable hypochondriac, thinks he's having a heart attack. The audience learns that Luke, a man in his late 20s, is a fledgling actor, and Adam, age 40, is in the throes of a mid-life crisis.
As the scene winds to a close, Adam decides to quit his job as a candle salesman at Holly's shop, hoping to kick-start his thus-far disappointing life.
Luke had invited Adam to see him perform in an upcoming play. When the story flashes to the past, again, it's the morning after a performance and Luke is cooking breakfast at Adam's apartment.
While they are eating, Adam discovers Luke believes strongly in God and the ideology that all who believe in God, and ask for his forgiveness, will go to heaven, regardless of their deeds. Adam also learns that Luke believes their lifestyle is a sin that requires daily atonement. The first of many heated, controversial arguments ensues.
Nauffts provides in-depth character development of not just Luke and Adam, but also of Holly, Luke's friend Brandon (Matt Delamater) and Luke's parents, Butch (Tony Reilly) and Arlene (Moira Driscoll). He makes the audience care for the characters and ultimately feel their pain.
It would do the play an injustice to reveal more of the storyline. Let's just say you might want to consider having a box of tissues handy for this one.
Director Brian P. Allen has chosen a superb cast of actors who really know how to deliver one heck of an emotional punch that leaves your stomach in knots. And, if you do manage to stave off the waterworks, one look at the mottled, tear-streaked faces of the actors at the end could rattle the composure of even the most stoic of audience members.
“NEXT FALL” REVIEW
The Journal Tribune, by Gregory Morell, 2/2/2012Portland’s GOOD THEATER has presented an impressive season of terrific drama in their tenth year and their current production of NEXT FALL adds to the richness.
Smartly directed, beautifully paced through 14 scenes, and touchingly acted by a tight ensemble of six actors, this is an intimate drama of personal and familial conflict. The cleverly crafted scene sequence jumps back and forth in time, taking us in and out of a hospital waiting room after a mortal traffic accident.
Our central character, Luke, is a law school drop out struggling with an acting career in New York City and the personal dilemma of trying to rectify his traditional Christian religious beliefs with his active homosexual lifestyle. Although openly honest about his sexuality with his friends and co-workers his gayness is a closely guarded secret to his family, especially to his red necked successful southern Georgia businessman of a father, aptly named “Butch.“
As the play opens Luke’s estranged parents and his friends are gathered in a hospital waiting room anxiously expecting news from doctors as Luke lies in a coma after being struck by a taxi on a city sidewalk.
NEXT FALL presents glimpses of the past in an odd chronology. These poignant glimpses expose the unusual and thought provoking relationship conflicts that fuel this interesting story of discovery.
Complexity of relationship is fully explored in the play’s two acts. Although his parents have been estranged for years they are deeply devoted to each other and their son. His happy and strongly forged gay partnership with his long time lover is plagued by Luke’s insistence to keep their relationship a family secret and additionally by Luke’s religious hypocrisy.
When Dad suddenly arrives in New York unannounced, and telephones informing Luke that he is on the way over for a first visit to Luke’s apartment, an apartment Luke has shared with his gay partner Adam for four years, all the secrets and deceptions come bubbling to surface. Luke frenetically tries to “de-gay” the apartment as he is harassed by Adam who insists that he finally confront Dad with the truth. The comedy inherent in this humorous conflagration is joyously savored by the audience who cannot help but laugh at the shenanigans.
Most interesting however, is the bizarre relationship that Luke shares with his friend Brandon. Throughout most of the play Brandon remains a secretive and reticent foil to his colorful and highly animated fellow cast members. Brandon’s tense brooding is artfully rendered by actor Matt Delamater who very successfully keeps the audience guessing as to how he figures into this web of conflict. He is like an iceberg whose true identity likes frozen beneath the surface.
When Brandon’s secrets are finally revealed near the conclusion of the play the result is shocking.
A plethora of serious themes are explored in this excellently drawn drama and the intimacy of the Good Theater playhouse continues to reward its audiences with superb theater craft and memorable performances. Brian Allen and his talented acting ensembles should be sought out.
Little Me
by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh
March 7 - April 1, 2012
by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh, tells the story of Belle Poitrine, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks and her quest for wealth, culture and social position. This wildly comic musical comedy was written as a vehicle for Sid Caesar who played all seven men in Belle's life. Stephen Underwood will play the Caesar role while Lynne McGhee and Kelly Caufield are featured as older and younger Belle. This production is directed by Brian P. Allen with musical direction by Beth Barefoot-Jones. It's the biggest little show you'll ever see.
-
Stephen Underwood – Noble, Pinchley, Val, Fred, Prince, Otto, Noble Jr.
Kelly Caufield – Younger Belle, Baby
Lynne McGhee* – Older Belle
Glenn Andersen – Butler, Kleeg, Judge, Preacher, General, King, Yulnick, others
Todd Daley – Lawyer, Rich Kid, Bennie, Cop, Sergeant, Sailor, Doctor, others
Marie Dittmer - Nurse, Rich Kid, Miss Keppleworth, Val’s Girl, Party Girl, Secretary, others
Betsy Dunphy – Maid, Mrs. Eggleston, Nurse, Ballet Teacher, Preacher’s Wife, others
Meredith LaMothe – Secretary, Ramona, Witness, Val’s Girl, Party Girl, A.D, others
Jen Means – Momma, Colette, Party Girl, others
Erik Moody – Rich Kid, Junior, Bernie, Cop, Soldier, German, Sailor, others
Jon Robinson – Hair Dresser, Rich Kid, Cop, Soldier, Steward, Victor, Cop, others
Andrew Sawyer – Patrick Dennis, Soldier, others
Tyler Sperry – Trainer, George Musgrove, Cop, Soldier, Sailor, others
Brian P. Allen^ – Director
Victoria Stubbs – Musical Director
Tyler Sperry – Choreography
Janet Montgomery & Stephen Underwood – Set Design
Justin Cote – Costume Design & Production Stage Manager
Iain Odlin – Lighting Design
Michael Lynch – Assistant Stage Manager
Craig Robinson – Assistant Technical Director & Photographer* Member Actors' Equity Association
^ Member SDC, Society of Directors & Choreographers -
BIG LAUGHS FOR LITTLE ME – FUNTASTIC
BroadwayWorld.com by Michael J. Tobin, 3/12/2012What do you get when you take one great comedic actor who plays seven different parts, a powerhouse leading lady and an ensemble of 11 multitalented thespians? You get one fun-tastic evening of professional theater with the musical, Little Me, presented by the Good Theater in Portland, Maine.
With a book by Neil Simon based on the novel by Patrick Dennis, Music by Cy Coleman and Lyrics by Carolyn Leight, Little Me tells the story of the rise to fame, and excessively large fortune of a little girl from the wrong side of the tracks who finds her way to the right side with the help of several willing gentlemen.
This show should only be done if you have a triple threat actor to play the male lead. Fortunately, Good Theater has Stephen Underwood who can sing, dance and act all seven parts with hilarious perfection. Underwood effortlessly brings the roles of Noble, Pinchley, Val, Fred, Otto, Prince, and Noble, Jr. to life repeatedly, giving each their own solid physicality and vocal nuance. Underwood's performance is what good comedy is all about, evident by the non-stop laughter of the audience every time he was on stage.
Kelly Caufield (Younger Belle & Baby) proves, once again, why she is the best musical actress in Maine. Caufield shines on stage, with her solid singing, dancing and infectious smile. Caufield proves her comedic strength, complimenting Underwood's many roles with equal hilarity in her acting.
Lynne McGhee (Older Belle) does a great job and is fun to watch. McGhee's costumes are fantastic and her moments in a white tutu ensemble are priceless. Andrew Sawyer (Patrick Dennis) is delightful, enhancing McGhee and each scene he's in. There is no doubt that Glenn Anderson is the ultimate supporting character actor with his solid portrayal of several roles. Anderson masterfully brings the most to every moment he's on stage. John U. Robinson is very funny in his many roles. Triple threat Tyler Sperry shines whenever he's on stage.
The entire talented ensemble works extremely hard and very fast in their many roles. Marie Dittmer, Betsy Melarkey Dunphy, Meredith Lamothe, Jen Means, Todd Daley and Eric Moody appear to have as much fun as we do with every scene they're in.
Director Brian P. Allen moves his performers around the stage with a professional eye for the perfect pictures, allowing his actors to shine in their individual moments yet not stealing focus from what's important to the scene. Allen keeps the pace moving, delivering the most out of the script, score and characters, giving each actor a solid foundation to create on. Victoria Stubbs (Musical Director) provides a solid sound, both individually and collectively. It was a joy to hear clear diction and perfectly blended harmonies with a great band (Stubbs, John Lawson and William Manning) and no body microphones. The choreography of Tyler Sperry was creative, fun and performed well.
Janet Montgomery (Set Designer) created a beautiful set that was perfect for so many transitions and such a large cast. Iain Odlin (Lighting Designer) did a nice job with color and focus, enhancing the visual concept of Allen and Montgomery. A standing ovation to Justin Cote (Costume Designer) for the hundreds of costumes pieces and many wigs.
The audience loved the show, evident by the continuous laughter and standing ovation. Having never seen or heard the show before, I was thoroughly entertained and highly recommend this show if you want a very fun evening of good theater.
A ROARING SUCCESS: GOOD THEATER’S 10TH-ANNIVERSARY REPRISE OF “LITTLE ME
The Portland Phoenix by Megan Grumbling, 3/14/2012Of all the tenets in the American mythology, upward mobility is one of the biggies, both the most exalted and the most critiqued: We have both our Pretty Women and our Sisters Carrie. And somewhere in between, we also have Belle Poitrine, who was born on the wrong side of the tracks, but whose destiny, heart of gold, and curiously fatal effect on men have furthered her search for achievement. Good Theater, in its revival of Neil Simon's musical comedy Little Me, a fun and frothy send-up that the company first mounted 10 years ago, in its opening season. Now as then, all of Belle's most strategically important beaux are played by the lanky and hilarious Stephen Underwood, and Brian Allen directs a sumptuous production with a sharp live band, an stellar ensemble of thirteen, and the supple, ever-transporting voice of leading lady Kelly Caufield.
A martini-swilling older Belle (Lynne McGhee), finally dripping with diamonds, ostrich feathers, and accommodating beefcakes, recounts her story to a young writer Patrick Dennis (Andrew Sawyer) angling for a lucrative biography. As the older Belle tells it, despite living in poverty with her madam Momma (Jen Means, brassily) on Drifters Row, young Belle (Caufield) has a moment with the town's uppermost-class golden boy, Noble Eggleston (Underwood). But Mom Eggleston (Betsy Melarkey Dunphy) wants him married off to fellow blueblood Ramona (Meredith Lamothe), so Noble and the huge-hearted Belle pledge to wait for each other until she has managed to acquire that hallowed trinity of American success, Wealth, Culture, and Social Position.
Luckily, it's not just Belle Poitrine's heart that's big and beautiful - if your ninth-grade French has resurfaced, you'll have correctly guessed that her chest also inspires prodigious warmth. So on the strength of both heart and bosom, Belle makes her mostly ingenuous way from Drifters Row to vaudeville and to all the way to Hollywood (her "short-cut to Culture").
Older Belle tells her tale from the palatial South Hampton mansion where she holds court over a fawning entourage of butlers, nurses, and tennis coaches (including Glenn Anderson, Marie Dittmer, and John U. Robinson) and Good Theater's designers have hit this set out of the park: The two-level design is opulent in gold, black, and wine-colored marble, with ceiling-high columns and tooled white molding, furnished with lounge chairs upholstered in leopard and zebra. Likewise has nothing been spared with costumes, which are stylishly designed (Justin Cote) and very, very myriad — Older Belle herself changes her quintessentially decadent attire with every new interlude, Underwood's various guises have got to be seen to be believed, and no fewer than twenty other characters pass over the stage, from Drifters Row urchins to GIs and plaid-jacketed producers (Erik Moody and Todd Daley). Particularly fun get-ups appear for the vaudeville and nightclub dance numbers, when actors shake and slink in bobby-cop outfits and red satin.
Dancing, indeed, is a great focus in the show. Bob Fosse did the original 1962 choreography, and in this production, choreographer Tyler Sperry's sharp and funny numbers both celebrate and send up the genre — watch for the totally square "Rich Kids Rag," a deliberately over-the-top jazz-ballet seduction performed by Belle's old classmate-turned-nightclub-owner George (Sperry), and a priceless, softly-sung soft-shoe revue of whistling, women-starved GIs.
Likewise does this terrific, energetic cast smartly walk the line of lightly ironic satire that is the hallmark of the script. Lines like Noble's "That's the American way — eat till you're stuffed, then give away the rest," are played with tongues vigorously but jovially in cheeks — the substance is scathing, but the tone is merry. Underwood's antics are gleefully entertaining; Caufield's radiance and voice, as always, are alone worth the price of admission. And the greatest American myth (coming again soon to a national campaign near you) is a lot easier to appraise wrapped in the Good Theater's extravaganza of glitter and gin.
GOOD THEATER REVIVES “LITTLE ME”
Portland Press Herald by April Boyle, 3/11/2012The 10-time-nominated, Tony Award-winning musical "Little Me" was the third production Good Theater staged in its inaugural year. The theater is now reviving the production as the last homage to its 10th year.
"Little Me" originally opened on Broadway in 1962, starring Sid Caesar as seven men in the life of one woman, Belle. Underwood, who tackled this multi-character role in the Good Theater's original production, returns to once again roll out the laughs in this zany musical.
In total, five cast members have returned to help the Good Theater stage the re-tooled rendition. Eight new actors round out the 13-member cast.
The set has also undergone a transformation since the Good Theater first staged the production. A bare-bones set has been turned into the epitome of elegance by set designer and scenic artist Janet Montgomery, thanks in large part to the props and sets amassed in Allen and Underwood's basement over the past 10 years.
Expect utter wackiness with Good Theater's latest take on "Little Me." Even when the topics are serious, the production is not.
Societal commentary is disguised by absurdity, with Underwood delivering cheeky lines such as "It's not a gift, it's charity" and "I hope to someday become a legal doctor." The musical is over-the-top silliness, designed to keep the laughs coming, in both spoken word and song.
Underwood morphed into his seven characters with gleeful abandon Saturday, as if he'd been re-drawn by a cartoonist. With each costume, accent, personality and mannerism change, a new stereotypical character appeared, at times making Underwood almost unrecognizable. He clearly reveled in the ludicrousness of the cliches.
Lynne McGhee (older Belle) and Kelly Caufield (younger Belle) share the role of Belle. Like Underwood, the two dynamic women were overtly showing off their mutually wicked sense of humor Saturday.
It was tongue-in-cheek all the way for both of them. But no matter how asinine the songs got, Caufield's powerhouse vocals still managed to make the ridiculous sound beautiful.
The production also stars Glenn Anderson, Todd Daley, Marie Dittmer, Betsy Melarkey Dunphy, Meredith Lamothe, Jen Means, Erik Moody, John U. Robinson, Andrew Sawyer and Tyler Sperry. All slip in and out of various roles as Belle's staff and friends, re-enacting her rags-to-riches story. And the madcap facial expressions on their collective faces aren't easily forgotten. The cast abounds with born comedians.
Sperry also serves as choreographer, providing lively dance numbers throughout. The audience is treated to a showcase of his dancing skills in "I've Got Your Number."
"Little Me" is 1960s camp, with an underlying message that's intentionally overshadowed by the frivolous. Viewers probably won't leave this production feeling enlightened, unless it's the heart and soul that needs lightening. In that case, "Little Me" might be just what the doctor ordered.